This is The Guardian.

Today, mass trials, televised tribunals and the noose, a new era for Israel's justice system. Early this month,

Israel's far-right security minister, Itamar Benghavir, celebrated a special birthday.

There was music, guests and naturally a cake with a very special birthday message.

So he had his 50th birthday earlier this month and his cake, which he proudly shared pictures of on social media, was a noose-th themed cake.

So there was a big image of a noose.

Oh my God. And around it was the sort of caption or the message in icing,

congratulations, Minister Ben-Gabir, sometimes dreams come true.

For decades, Israel was a country that had effectively left the death penalty behind.

Now, after the passing of two separate laws in two months, all that has changed.

From The Guardian, I'm Annie Kelly. Today in Focus, Israel brings back the death penalty, but only for Palestinians?

Emma Graham Harrison, you're the Guardian's chief Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem.

Welcome to today on focus. Today we're here to talk about this new law that has been passed in Israel

that will mean that Palestinian prisoners charged with involvement in the October 7th attacks

could now face the death sentence. But this is actually the second piece of legislation about the death

penalty passed in Israel in recent months. So can we start by you telling me about the law that was

passed by the Knesset in March and how this has laid the groundwork for what we're seeing now?

So the law that was passed in March is frankly horrifying. It's fundamentally racist. It's

basically aimed only at Palestinians because it instigates the death penalty for people convicted

of deadly terrorism with an intent to deny the existence of the state of Israel.

So essentially, it's almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which, for instance,

a Jewish-Israeli convicted of terrorism against Palestinians would face the death penalty.

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